I remember reading on these boards that one was much more important in this game than the other (something to do with the programming). Anybody remember anything along these lines?

TIA

i usually built up both pretty evenly. same with open lock and detect/disarm trap.

i dont set many traps if at all, and you dont need much more pickpocket than say 80 points, so the rest for me goes into the four skills i actually use.

I believe Hide in Shadows is used to initially hide. Move Silently starts after the first round or so of sucessfully hiding. So now it depends on what you want to do with the character.

High HS, Low MS: Attack and fade. Run around a corner with a bad guy following you, shift to sneak mode, then backstab immediately. Scouting is difficult.

Low HS, High MS: Scout and first strike backstab. You can try multiple times to hide, when you succeed you pretty much stay hidden. Attack and fade is not recommended.

I think it's easier to be even in both.

They both matter. Enemy AI scripts can check for valid targets with See(Player1) or Detect(Player1). Being invisible or hidden in shadows would cause the former to fail, but if you're hidden in shadows but have a poor move silently skill, the Detect() can catch you. This is often why enemies will cast True Seeing/Sight--they know someone is there because they can hear, but not see, you.

To be fair, many scripts just cheat and cast it if there is an invisible character in their range without bothering with Detect().